Internationalisation and Mobility

5 replies [Last post]
March 9, 2010 - 05:59
campbell
Offline
Joined: Nov 6 2009

This discussion forum has been created to engage discussion around how to best embody internationalisation and mobility within the CDIO framework. An international working party has been formed to lead discussions, however, all are welcome to give input. The outcomes of this discussion will be distilled and presented at the 2010 CDIO conference in Montreal.

This discussion paper, Proposed CDIO Standard 13 - Internationalisation and Mobility, provides the background research which has contributed to the notions of best practice in internationlisation and student mobility.

The feedback obtained thus far from email responses, discussions at the 2009 CDIO Conference Singapore, and the 2009 Collaborator's Meeting in Turku is summarized as follows:

  1. There is overall agreement in the principles of internationalization and student mobility.
  2. There is some concern about the potential of a multitude of new Standards being introduced.
  3. There is some concern about perceived expectations and potential exploitation of some of the “evidence” of best practice.

This discussion topic will begin with two subjects (threads). The first is to do with the wording in the form of a Draft Standard and the second is to discuss how best to embody resources and inspiration for best practice.

Many thanks to those whom have provided valuable input, and those whom will do so in the future. I invite all to contribute to this discussion

Duncan Campbell

Top
April 6, 2010 - 18:52
#1
campbell
Offline
Joined: Nov 6 2009
Draft Standard Wording

This discussion thread is to invite suggestions for revised wording, particularly for the "evidence", to address the 3rd feedback point:

perceived expectations and potential exploitation of some of the “evidence” of best practice

Standard 13 (October Draft) - CDIO Internationalization and Mobility Programs and organizational commitment which exposes students to foreign cultures, and promotes and enables transportability of curriculum, portability of qualifications, joint awards, transparent recognition and international mobility.

Description: CDIO Program Internationalization and Mobility encourages and recognizes organizational commitment which prepares engineers for a global environment and to expose them to a rich set of international experiences and contexts during their studies. It represents the exposure, promotion, facilitation, opportunity and scholarship of an internationalized curriculum, qualifications and international mobility of students.

Rationale: Graduate engineers of the future will increasingly need to be international in their outlook and experience, and be prepared to operate globally. Businesses have to compete and collaborate on a global scale, and operate across national and international borders with organizational environments being increasingly complex, dynamic and with more interdependencies. Our challenge as educational institutions is to aid our students to prepare for this global environment.

Evidence may include, non-exclusively, one or more of the following:

  • The embedding of authentic cultural awareness and experiences within the curriculum, or social activities
  • Opportunities be made available for students to learn second languages
  • Programs which encourage and recognize study abroad, and other international experiences (including internships, exchanges) for credit
  • Establishment of a mobility window within programs and curriculum
  • An ePortfolio facility which links student learning outcomes with artifacts, and graduate attributes and competencies which are recognized through international accords
  • A demonstrable and tangible institutional commitment to internationalization and student mobility
  • Complimentary partnerships between international universities
  • Transparent expectations of student learning outcomes from an international experience
  • International benchmarking of programs
  • Active involvement in international engineering education scholarly activities
  • Program accreditation with international cross-accreditations (eg. Washington accord, …)
  • Transparency in intuitional cross-credit for study aboard
  • Partnerships with international corporations/industry with offices co-located with partnering institutions
  • Professional development programs (including sabbatical leave) on internationalization and mobility for faculty
  • Dual award programs involving two or more countries
  • Participation in international global mobility networks
Top
May 4, 2010 - 02:28
#2
campbell
Offline
Joined: Nov 6 2009
Simplified Evidence
  • The embedding of authentic cultural awareness and experiences within the curriculum, or social activities
  • Opportunities within the program for students to study or work abroad, particularly in the CDIO context
  • Transparent learning outcomes and credit recognition of study abroad
  • Professional development opportunities for faculty such as attending international engineering education conferences or sabbatical studies
Top
May 28, 2010 - 03:21
#3
Jean-Marie Gilliot
Offline
Joined: Oct 6 2009
Evidence and Best practice

We think it is absolutly necessary to shorten number of evidence. This new simplified list is a good thing.

Some of the topics of the previous list are good candidates for the "best practice" handbook.

We propose to add in this handbook the idea to propose or to take part to summer schools, which is a good opportunity for all to acquire a first intercultural experience. See for example  : Managing a Multicultural World Summerschool or Summer schools in Europe site.

Top
April 7, 2010 - 18:47
#4
campbell
Offline
Joined: Nov 6 2009
Implementation Options

This discussion thread is to invite suggestions for how we best embody the notion of best practice thereby addressing the 2nd feedback point:

potential of a multitude of new Standards being introduced

The key underlying strategy to embed internationalisation and mobility within the engineering curriculum is to provide best practice and guidance, have supporting syllabus topics, and to share resources to help with implementation.

CDIO Syllabus

The current version of the syllabus, and the proposed revised syllabus, has topics around practice in a global environment, second languages, and multi-cultural aspects and diversity.

Shared Resources

It is anticipated that, whatever form this proposal ultimately takes, we would establish a pool of shared resources to help with the implementation of international curricula and promoting student mobility. The new CDIO web-site lends itself well to this and we have a rich international community of practice to contribute valuable resources.

Best Practice

The key question here is how to embody and express the notions of best practice in a robust and scholarly way. The CDIO Standards provide the historial mechanism to do this. There would appear to be two basic options in terms of expressing best practice through the Standards:

  1. As a community, we accept that the introduction of the 13th CDIO Standard on Internationalization and Mobility is justified subject to acceptable rewording (refer to the other discussion thread).
  2. We modify one or more of the existing CDIO Standards in a minimal sense to ensure the notion of internationalisation is adequately embedded AND we establish an authoritative source for presenting best practice (like a field manual of best practice). This source is different to the shared resources. The authoritative source would need to capture the "what" aspect, much like the Standards do, and include scholarly rigour and review. The shared resources provide the tools to implement it. This mechanism may be suitable for future evolving needs in engineering curriculum such as Sustainability in a CDIO context.

I invite your comment and ideas, particularly to do with the two options above.

Top
May 28, 2010 - 03:07
#5
Jean-Marie Gilliot
Offline
Joined: Oct 6 2009
Implementation Option: existing standards modification

During last Southern/Middle Europe Regional group meeting, we tried to examine this option. We followed two tracks:

  1. Inclusion in existing standards: possible options are standadrs 2,3 or 7. The drawback would be to encourage integrated experience in engineering, which in the very special case of intercultural experience, may be counter-sense or at least a limitation, as intercultural stance as an opening to people outside current environment.
  2. Rearrange Existing standards: another optin would be to regroup standards 6 to 8 in 2 standards dedicated to sound pedagogical methods and to include the proposed standard as a fourth (optional) standard in curriculum development.

We retained this second as a possible option in ordre to avoid a 13rd standard as a way to keep a balance between different aspects included in the standards.

Top